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Archive for December, 2005

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Free First Class Upgrade, Free Business Class Upgrade

Saturday, December 17th, 2005

Currently at the AMS airport, paying something like 50 cents a minute for internet access to update this (and check email, of course).

Great story to tell, will add more later, but here is the gist…

My flight changed, and I didn’t know. I was supposed to be on an earlier flight, which I discovered upon trying to check in at PDX airport. I had a minor heart attack, but the nice agent was able to get me on the flight AND decided to give me first class because of the trouble. Awesome!

When I got to Detroit, I thought, what the hell, why not ask if there are any available upgrade seats? There were, earlier, but a flight had been overbooked and they bumped a lot of people up onto that flight. Awwww.

When I was boarding, however, the agent took my pass and gave me another one, with someone else’s name. I was afaid it was a middle seat, but I decided not to complain, becuase it was still a window seat.

Well….they ended up putting too of us in the same seat – we had similar last names, so that was probably the mix up. Anyway, they called me out on the plane and when I walked up, the agent handed me a ticket to sit in business class. Oh man…it’s so much better. Laying flat down to sleep? Heaven!

On my way to Nairobi in a few hours. Hope everyone is doing well!

Who is girl and why does she travel?

Friday, December 16th, 2005

I pulled this from my BootsnAll profile, sorry for the third person…and massive pic. I can’t get it to resize….

Bocchi Ball, Anyone?

Courtney Ries is the youngest brat of the bunch.

The Midwest native was born in Milwaukee and moved all around the freezing cold northern states before landing in Apple Valley, Minnesota, which, despite its name, has no apple trees. Tired of living in the ‘burbs half an hour out of ‘the city’, she went to school in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb that was physically closer but yet somehow demanded a longer commute into ‘the city.’

Inspired by friends with accents, Courtney ventured out of the country her freshman year of college and, much to her father’s chagrin, manged to slap and be-slapped by a trash-talking Frenchman on the subway. Hooked on travel and sick of the 21 drinking age, she went Down Under for a semester and finally got to live in the city, near Chinatown, Sydney. Court graduated from Northwestern University six months later with a piece of paper saying she knows what’s what with Broadcasting Journalism and Business. Daunted by the idea of going through hours of video footage to create a portfolio tape, she skipped out of the country and spent graduation day on a train to Nice.

Courtney returned from her solo RTW trip in October 2003 and after working a string of mentally taxing jobs as a secretary (with a title of Marketing Director), sales girl (Can I help you find anything?) and CD-case stuffer (No, honest) she road-tripped out to Portland to join BnA, managing to call AAA not once, but twice, in a period of five days. This Bootz gyrrrl hates asking for directions, doing her hair and spelling ‘girl’ like ‘gyrrrl.’

Feel free to contact Court: court at bootsnall dot com

Altitude Sickness Story

Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
I spoke with a friend this morning and he mentioned that one of his colleagues, an acquaintance of mine, was in the hospital. Although they both live in Colorado, they had been at sea level for 5 weeks, traveling. Soon ... [Continue reading this entry]

T minus 5 days: Africa, here I come!

Monday, December 12th, 2005
Like all travel plans, mine have changed since my original post. Abs is no longer coming with me, and it looks like the safari is out (although I'll hopefully grab one in South Africa). Updated itinerary, in too much ... [Continue reading this entry]